Recycled Twin Cities playground goes to refugee camp

What happens to old playground equipment when affluent suburbs move on to something better?

They end up in a Syrian refugee camp in Lebanon, the Woodbury Bulletin reports.

When the city upgraded the Timberlea playground in 2015, it donated the equipment to Kids Around the World, whose mission includes building playgrounds in impoverished communities. Playgrounds are refurbished and then sent somewhere else in the world.

Woodbury’s ended up in the refugee camp.

“These kids don’t smile. Life is hard on them,” Paul Bierhaus, a board member for Kids Around the World, told the paper. “When they see that playground and realize it’s for them, their faces just light up, and they go nuts when they get the chance to play on that playground.”

A Woodbury playground has a life expectancy of about 20 years. The city replaces one playground per year.